Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius

After a few missed attempts at trying to see Perfume Genius in New York, last night was finally my first time seeing Mike Hadreas perform since his excellent Too Bright came out last year. It was worth the wait. Hadreas and his band came out all in black, and, bathed in red and white lights. The disparity between Hadreas when he’s singing and when he’s speaking is half stunning and half funny. During the highlights of the set — the brooding, electronic-oriented stuff like “Grid” and “Longpig” — he swayed and thrashed, possessed. And then he’d sorta-bashfully say “Thanks y’all” in between songs, like he’d very briefly come back down to earth. I was going to leave early to make it to Sleater-Kinney, but I wanted to hear “Queen,” one of the best songs of 2014. Hadreas wisely saves it for the end, where it functions as a closer that burns down whatever’s left of the place.